Coin collecting apparatus



Dec. 15, 1936. c, H, WHEE E- 2,064,280

COIN COLLECTING APPARATUS Filed May 17, 1935 lNl ENTOR y CH. WHEELER WWW A TTORlVEV Patented ea. 15, 193% COIN COLLECTING APPARATUS Ciyde H. Wheeler, Midland Park, N. .L, assignor to Belt Telephone Laboratories, incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application May 1'7,

3 Glaiims.

This invention relates to coin collecting apparatus, particularly of the type for use in a telephone pay station.

In the usual type of telephone coin collector as exemplified in the disclosure of the O. F. Forsberg U. S. Patent 1,043,219, issued November 5, 1912, deposited coins, after striking a coin trigger to close a circuit for the coin relay, are temporarily retained upon a coin trap and subsequently directed into a collect chute or a refund chute depending upon whether the desired telephone connection is established. lhe coin trap may be supported by a normally Vertical vane pivoted at its lower end and controlled by the coin relay to be moved in one direction to allow the coins on the trap to be discharged into the collect chute and moved in the opposite direction to discharge coins into the refund chute, leading to an opening in the housing where the refunded coins may be recovered by the user of the instrument.

The refund side of the coin hopper is usually equipped with a shutter hinged in such a way as to freely swing outwardly to permit the normal passage of coins from the hopper into the lower part of the refund chute but blocked against any movement in the reverse direction towards the coin vane. Unscrupulous persons, however, occasionally insert wires or other tools up the refund chute in an attempt to swing this shutter outwardly in order to gain access to the coin vane and secure a fraudulent refund of coins before the central office operator has operated the electromagnet to collect the coins on the trap.

An object of this invention is to increase the difficulty of obtaining fraudulent refunds from a coin collector and to increase the protection of the coin refunding mechanism from tampering.

A further object is the provision of an improved coin trigger mounting for a coin collector of the above described type.

In accordance with the preferred form of this invention, a pair of interlocking shutters are provided for the refund outlet of the coin hopper so arranged that the exterior shutter is free to move outwardly only when it has been released from a locked condition by a substantial outward movement of the inner shutter. Thus, the upper end of the inner shutter may have an extension normally lying in the path of the movement of an extension from the outer shutter, so that any attempt to move the outer shutter with the inner shutter in its normal position will be frustrated, but the outer shutter may be 1935, Serial No. 21,932

moved freely outwardly as soon as there has been a substantial outward movement of the innor shutter. This arrangement will lock the outer shutter against any attempt to force it outwardly to permit the insertion of a wire or other tool into the coin hopper but will not interfere in any manner with the legitimate discharge of coins from the coin trap.

Referring to the drawing,

Fig. l is a fragmentary view, partly in section, of the central portion of a telephone coin collector disclosing a coin hopper embodying this invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged front view of the coin hopper of Fig. 1, showing the interlocking shutters in normal unactuated position;

Fig. 3 is similar to Fig. 2 and shows the interlocking shutters being operated by a discharged coin;

Fig. 4 is a top view of the inner shutter of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 illustrates an improved coin trigger mounting, and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line l55 of Fi 5.

Fig. 1 shows only a portion of a telephone coin collector of the type disclosed in the abovementioned Forsberg patent, to which reference is made for further details as to its construction and method of operation. As explained in the Forsberg patent, a coin deposited by a subscriber after passage through a coin chute it drops into a coin hopper H, actuates a coin trigger l2 and is temporarily retained upon a coin trap l3. The actuation of trigger l2 releases the spring pressed lever M to enable a circuit to be closed through the windings of a polarized relay l5 whereby the remote central oiiice operator by an arrangement disclosed in the Forsberg patent may subsequently cause the coin on trap it to be directed into a refund chute it or a collect chute ll depending upon the polarity of the current applied to the relay l5.

Trap i3 is normally supported in a substantially horizontal position by a vane it which is pivoted at its lower end and which has a pin I9 projecting through an arcuate slot in the hopper for engagement with the forked end of the extension 28 of therelay armature. Referring to Fig. 2, if the armature extension 20 is moved to the right it is obvious that the coin trap It in falling will discharge the coins thereon into refund chute 16 leading to an opening (not shown) in the collector housing where such coins may be recovered by the user of the instrument. If the armature extension 2i? is moved to the left it will also be apparent that the coin trap 93 will discharge the coins thereon into chute ll which may lead to a cash compartment.

In view of the fact that the refund chute it as in the Forsbergpatent leads to an opening in a side wall of the collector housing, it is 1160-. essary to protect the vane iii from tampering, specifically to prevent the vane l8 from being fraudulently actuated by wires or other instruments inserted through the refund opening. Referring particularly to Figs. 2 and 3, it will be seen that refund chute it is normally closed by two shutters 2!, 22, shutter 25 being pivoted about axis and shutter 22 being pivoted about axis 24. Due to the sloping bottom of refund chute H5 it will be apparent that neither shutter can be pushed inwardly from its normal vertical position since such movement is prevented by the bottom edge of each shutter striking the bottom wall of the refund chute.

Shutter 2! which is pivoted on a lower axis than shutter 22 has an upwardly extending arm 25 the upper edge of which lies in the path of travel of a downwardly curved extension 2% on shutter 2'2. If a coin is dropped by coin trap 13 into refund chute iii, the discharged coin will, of course, first strike shutter 2i which yields freely to allow the coin to pass and this outward movement as shown in Fig. 3 removes extension 25 out of the path of extension 26 so that the outer shutter 22 will also freely yield when the coin subsequently strikes it to enable the coin to pass on down the refund chute to the refund opening in the lower part of the coin collector housing. That is, when shutter ii is moved outwardly prior to shutter 22 the two shutters in turn yield freely to permit the passage of any refunded coins but an attempt to operate the two shutters in reverse order will be frustrated. For example, if a wire or tool is inserted up the refund chute in an attempt to pry the shutters 22, 2! outwardly, the shutter 22 can be moved outwardly-only a small distance before its extension 25 contacts with the upper arm of shutter 2! and not only prevents further ,outward movement of shutter 22 but also prevents shutter 2i from being moved outwardly. It is, therefore, apparent that shutter 22 cannot be opened unless shutter 2| has previously been opened, so that there is no danger that a tool or wire can pass beyond the two shutters and produce a fraudulent refund operation of vane l8.

In order that the upper edge of extension 25 may provide a satisfactory cam surface for extension 26, it may be desirable as shown in Fig. 4 to have arm 25 bowed slightly from a vertical plane to produce the same result as if the arm 25 were of increased thickness. From Fig. 4 it will also be seen that each side edge of shutter 2| has an extension 27 curved to form a bearing surface for the pivoting pin 28. For efficient operation the two shutters El, 22 should be located in close proximity to each other although, if desired, they may be somewhat farther apart than indicated in the drawing.

Fig. 3 shows the operation of the shutters by a coin 2s which has been dropped from trap 13 after coin vane 18 has been moved to the right by electromagnet 85. In the position shown, the coin has pushed shutter 2| outwardly so that shutter 22 will yield freely when it in turn is struck by the descending coin.

As previously stated, one of the important functions performed by a deposited coin is to strike trigger l2 and cause a circuit to be established through the windings of electromagnet lb. The spring pressed lever M rests on a shoulder 38 formed on the coin trigger just above its pivoting axis. When a coin strikes trigger l2, knocking the trigger downwardly, the end piece 33 of lever slides off shoulder 31! into, a recess 3! formed in the counterbalance 32 of the trigger. This lowering of arm it causes Contact springs to be closed to establish the desired circuit and the subsequent operation of relay 55 as described in the Forsberg patent raises arm I4 upwardly a sufficient distance to allow trigger 52 to restore so that when the relay is deenergized lever i i will again rest upon shoulder 36 of the trigger.

In order to minimize the danger of false operation of the trigger by blows on the housing and to minimize sticking troubles in its operated position, a resilient stop is provided to limit both the upward and the downward movement of the trigger. This is preferably accomplished by a helical spring, each end of which serves as a resilient stop for movement in one direction. As shown in Figs. 5 and 6 the pivoting pin 34 has wrapped around it several turns of a wire 35. One end of wire 35 comprising a straight portion 36 projects over the upper edge of the trigger support 38 and under arm 31 of the counterbalance to provide a resilient stop for the trigger in its restoring movement. The other end of wire 35 projects downwardly from the pivoting pin 34 and is then bent at right angles to provide a substantially horizontal arm 39 which at the point 40 is pressed against the face of support 38, but then is bent outwardly in a horizontal plane so that the main portion of arm 39 lies a substantial distance away from the face of support 33. As will be apparent from Figs. 5 and 6, this projecting wire 39 forms a resilient stop for the trigger in its downward movement since portion 4| of trigger i3 will strike Wire 39 when the trigger has been knocked downwardly by a deposited coin.

This resilient stop for the coin trigger is described and claimed in my divisional application Serial No. 64,690 filed February 19, 1936.

An additional modification of the coin collector of the Forsberg patent should be noted with respect to coin trigger I2 and the associated spring pressed lever Id. In order to obtain increased spring pressure on lever l4 while still permitting coin trigger 12 to be positively actuated by a thin dime the height of shoulder 30 above the pivoting axis of the trigger has been reduced and lug 33 projecting from the under surface of lever l4 has been added to offset the reduction in height of shoulder 30.

While the forms of this invention described above are preferred it is to be understood that the invention may possess other embodiments commensurate with the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a coin collector housing, a collect chute, a refund chute, means for guiding a deposited coin at times into said collect chute and at other times into said refund chute, said refund chute leading to a refund opening in said housing, a pivoted shutter in said refund chute between said means and said opening, a second pivoted shutter between said means and said first shutter, said second shutter being pivoted upon an axis lying in a horizontal plane below the horizontal plane containing the pivoting axis of said first shutter, a downwardly projecting lug on said first shutter, and an upwardly projecting lug on said second shutter arranged to engage said first lug when pressure is applied to move said first shutter outwardly towards said opening when said second shutter is in its normal unactuated position, said second lug being out of the path of said first lug when said second shutter is moved outwardly from its normal unactuated position.

2. In a coin collector housing, a collect chute, a refund chute, means for guiding a, deposited coin at times into said collect chute and at other times into said refund chute, said refund chute leading to a refund opening in said housing, a plurality of pivoted shutters in said refund chute between said opening and said means, each of said shutters normally lying in a position closing said refund chute, said refund chute beneath said shutters having a bottom wall which slopes downwardly away from said means, said sloping wall preventing said shutters from being opened inwardly, and means for preventing one shutter adjacent said opening from being opened outwardly towards said opening until a second shutter between said first shutter and said first means is opened outwardly, said second means holding the bottom end of said second shutter tightly against said bottom wall when any attempt is made to open said first shutter outwardly.

3. A coin collector housing in accordance with claim 2 in which said first shutter is pivoted on an axis above the pivoting axis of said second shutter and said second means comprises an upwardly extending lug on said second shutter and a downwardly extending lug on said first shutter contacting with said first lug when an attempt is made to move said first shutter outwardly with said second shutter in its normal position.

CLYDE H. WHEELER. 

